


Aftermath (the Light Given Unto You remix)

by torigates



Category: Cougar Town
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-04
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-12-31 12:03:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1031508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/pseuds/torigates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laurie hadn’t meant for it to happen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aftermath (the Light Given Unto You remix)

**Author's Note:**

> **Link to the original work:** [Light Given Unto You](http://archiveofourown.org/works/157459) by [](http://myr-soleil.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://myr-soleil.livejournal.com/)**myr_soleil**

 

  


  
Laurie hadn’t meant for it to happen.

It wasn’t that she _never_ thought about it, because she had. It was hard sometimes because she spent all of her time with old people, and it wasn’t her fault that her best friend just happened to have a kid, and that kid was a son who was really only a few years younger than Laurier. It wasn’t fair that he was funny, and smart, and yeah, a little pretentious in the way that made him attractive. It wasn’t Laurie’s fault that when she started spending all of her time with Jules that meant spending a lot of time with Travis. That was _Jules’_ fault for having such a freaky co-dependent relationship with her son.

So, yeah. None of this was Laurie’s fault.

Just like it wasn’t her fault that one night when she had nothing better to do she drove down to Travis’ college to watch _Jersey Shore_ with him. She had been doing that a lot recently, spending time with Travis. Going to visit him at school, having lunch or dinner, or just hanging out in his room, watching TV or a movie. It had become a habit.

It was a habit that led to watching TV on Travis’ bed. Which led to kissing on Travis’ bed. Which led to having sex on Travis’ bed.

After, Laurie lay on her back on said bed staring at the ceiling. All dorm roofs looked the same. Laurie could vouch to that, because even though she hadn’t gone to college herself, she had spent enough time on her back in dormitories to consider herself an expert (she gave herself a mental high-five for that). They were cracked and stuccoed and boring.

Travis lay on his side stroking her shoulder. She could see from her peripheral vision that he was smiling. Laurie wanted to turn to face him, but the growing ball of nerves in her stomach prevented her. Laurie had been the one to bring up Jules, but it was an inevitable conclusion. Jules was Laurie’s best friend. She was also Travis’ mom. Laurie and Travis just had sex. This, Laurie felt, was a problem.

She sucked in a breath and opened her mouth.

“Don’t,” Travis said.

She did turn then. “What?” she asked.

“Just don’t,” he said. “Whatever you were going to say about this being a mistake—just don’t.”

“How do you know I was going to say it was a mistake?” she asked, and propped herself up on her elbow to better see his face.

He laughed. “I haven’t been with very many women,” he started.

Laurie raised her eyebrow.

“I haven’t been with hardly any women,” he amended. “But I can tell what a regret face looks like.”

He said it so matter-of-factly that it made Laurie’s heart ache. Here was this wonderful, smart, funny, dorky man, who only ever wanted to make people happy, who had already been hurt. Even though Laurie had been there through many of those hurts, it hadn’t sunk in, somehow. Of course she had known that Travis had been through his share of breakups, but she had always looked at him as Jules’ son. As a kid. As someone who hadn’t experienced heartbreak. She knew that was unfair.

She leaned down and kissed him.

“What was that for?” he asked.

She shrugged and flopped back down on the bed. “Just for being you.”

He smiled at her. “So you won’t say it?” he asked.

“I should,” she said. And Laurie knew that she really should. There were so many reasons why what had just happened between them was a mistake. Travis was still in college, he lived twenty minutes away, he was younger than her, he was smart and going places, and that didn’t even touch on the fact that he was her best friend’s son. All of those things were real and valid, and Laurie knew that she should get out of his bed and tell him it was a mistake and that it could never happen again.

Those were things she should do.

Travis looked at her, and his eyes told her that he knew all the things she did. And that when she did open her mouth to tell him those things and get out of his bed, he would accept it, and that he would even let her continue to keep coming over to his dorm to watch trashy television and make fun of other people’s life choices. He would do all that. For her.

“No,” she said, and snuggled down under the covers. Travis’ face lit up. “I won’t say it.”

He grinned and kissed her full on the mouth, his body covering hers with his own. He kissed her again, his hands running down her shoulders and sides, his fingertips tickling lightly at her bare skin. She smiled against his mouth and opened herself up to him, and he trailed his mouth down over her chin and collarbone, his hands pressing into her skin. She sighed and pulled him closer.

There would be time to talk in the morning.

 

 

 

+++

 

 

 

In the morning, after Laurie kissed Travis, got in her car and drove back home (and by home, of course she means Jules’ house), she almost choked on her coffee when Jules smiled at her across the kitchen and asked, “What did you get up to last night?”

Laurie stammered out a response, that was probably meant to sound something like, “Nothing much,” but ended up more like, “Fine! Nothing! Fine! Nothing! Wh-why do you ask?”

Jules gave her a funny look but let it drop.

Laurie knew she and Travis would have to talk eventually. That she and Jules would have to talk, and that Travis and Jules would also have to get it out in the open (actually, knowing the cul-de-sac crew, she’d have to talk with Grayson, Andy, Ellie, and Bobby too, and they’d all talk to Jules, and Travis and each other).

Grayson appeared at the bottom of the stairs, his face still streaked with lines from his pillow from where he slept funny. He smiled at Jules and Laurie, and mumbled a sleepy “Good morning.” Ellie and Andy walked in bickering about something (Laurie tuned out ninety-nine percent of all things out of Ellie’s mouth), and she also knew, standing in Jules’ kitchen with the sun shining through the window, that when they did talk things would be okay.


End file.
